The Quick Answer

The short and quick answer is: Ocean Grown. This answer is super subjective though. There are plenty of people who would passionately argue against it. To really understand the acronym OG you have to take a little more time to look at two different sides.

Introduction

Alright, here we go. So you’ve probably noticed a lot of cannabis strains contain the letters OG in the name. You know, that Sour OG, Alien OG, and Super Purple OG Gorilla Skunk Presidential. Well, it all started with OG Kush. The true meaning has become more of a legend than anything else.

Basically, there are two different schools of belief. One being Ocean Grown, and the other being Original Gangster. Ocean Grown is arguably regarded as more correct by the cannabis community. Here’s both sides of the debate:

Ocean Grown

Ready for a short story?

There was an old school, northern California grower who had a reputation for growing some pretty incredible weed. One strain he was particularly known for was a kush variety of debatable origin.

One day, someone offered the grower a hit off a pipe. The guy claimed that his weed was so good because it was mountain grown. The grower had instantly recognized his strain and knew the guy was full of it. So, he replies by saying that “it’s not mountain grown, it’s ocean grown”. The name stuck.

Again, this is the story that most people go with.

Original Gangster

This is the flip side of the debate. OG was used to mean original gangster long before OG Kush came along. An original gangster is an old school gangster who has been in the game for a while.

A lot of people automatically assume it means original gangster, because it’s used as slang all over the place. It’s been used by the hip hop community for decades. Here’s a few more examples:

Son’s of Anarchy – The term OG is used throughout the show to refer to an Original Gangster.

Instagram – #OG is a popular hashtag on Instagram and Twitter. It could mean anything really, but most often it’s used to mean Original Ganger.

Most who believe it means original gangster claim it came from southern California – around the San Fernando Valley. Some claim that Cypress Hill played a role in giving the strain it’s name.

Conclusion

The OG debate is a fun to talk about, but I wouldn’t get too hung up it. I think it’s fair to allow OG to mean different things to different people. So, my final answer on what OG Kush stands for is: ‘It depends on which part of California it’s from.’

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Just for fun, I added a section of additional meaning that OG means.

Additional Meanings

Just for fun I listed some other things that OG stands for.

Shoes – When it comes to shoes, OG just stands for original. That is, a version of a shoes that was released before the retro version’s were made available. This is often the shoes that are released by an athlete while they’re still playing (e.g. OG Jordan’s). They term is used most often when talking about Nike’s.

Beer – This time it stands for Original Gravity. When you start brewing beer you take a measurement of the amount of sugar. This is the original gravity. When the beer is done fermenting, you take another reading called the Final Gravity (FG). This lets you determine what percentage alcohol is present.

Text Message – When it comes to a text OG could mean anything. Most often, it means Oh God.

Old Git – This is a British meaning for OG. An old git is an stupid, annoying, or senile old person.

Teen Mom – This time OG stands for Original Girls. The show Teen Mom was cancelled in it’s 4th season. For the fifth season they renamed the show Teen Mom OG. The show follows around some of the main cast members from season 1 of 16 and Pregnant. They are: Farrah Abraham, Maci Bookout, Catelynn Lowell, and Amber Portwood.

Dota 2 – This is an online battle game. OG is the name of a team that competes at game tournaments. I’m not sure what the origin means though. If you have more info about this comment down below. Update: Thanks so much to the commenter who let us know that it stands for ‘Optic Gaming’.

Here in the Midwest OG has many definitions also.
I’m old school and OG back in the day (late 70s-early 80s) was used for original genetics. This was when cloning and cross pollination was getting started.